It is possible to report a contact within the WhatsApp app: doing so automatically sends their last five messages to the company’s fraud team, as well as information “including the user ID, times and type of message, for example, text, image or video”. “I never had any feedback from them and suspect that reporting the scammer to them achieves very little, but I could be wrong,” she said. Valerie, who has long Covid, said Nationwide refunded the £2,000 and had treated her “very fairly” but WhatsApp did not acknowledge her fraud report. Valerie said she felt humiliated by the scam: “I will likely never get over the feeling of humiliation and embarrassment at being so easily conned when I thought I was too clever to be conned in this way.” She said: “I was totally taken in by the ‘Hi Mum’ WhatsApp message doing the rounds, partly because I am ill and very tired a lot of the time, and partly because I am in the habit of transferring money for one of my adult sons, who appeared to be asking for my help, which he then refunds me.” We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Valerie, 73, also fell victim to the scam about five weeks ago, handing over £2,000 to fraudsters pretending to be her son, who owns a small business and had borrowed money in the past. But obviously I was, because it happened, I allowed it to, and it knocked my confidence a fair bit.” “The bank asked me if I had any mental health problems or if I was vulnerable. It made me feel like a stupid, vulnerable old woman. The victim, who was unable to get a refund from her bank, added: “Obviously I felt stupid and embarrassed. I rang my daughter on her ‘old’ actual number, and she told me that it wasn’t her asking for money.” After I’d paid, I suddenly had a feeling of dread. “I thought she was probably stressed, or in a busy place, or travelling about London. “I tried to call on the ‘new number’, but it wasn’t answered, and then I was messaged to say that we would talk later. “Because it was work-related, and she has a reputation to forge, I paid a third party,” she said. The scammers posing as her daughter asked the victim to pay a £1,600 invoice, which needed to be done by the end of the day. Her daughter, 26, is self-employed, and it was not unusual for her to ask to borrow money. She told me she’d lost her phone and was using a different phone.” One victim told the Guardian: “Last December, I got a message from my daughter, who lives in London. Some banks, including HSBC and Halifax, warn consumers about the WhatsApp impersonation scam when they log into their online banking apps. UK Finance said the scam would often begin via text message before scammers ask to switch to WhatsApp, an encrypted platform. Cases originating through WhatsApp were up 300% compared with the previous year. TSB data shows scam activity on Meta platforms led to 86% of impersonation fraud cases reported to the bank in 2022 – with WhatsApp accounting for two-thirds of those incidents. According to the data, victims have lost £1.7m since the beginning of 2022. The latest statistics from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and Action Fraud showed there were 414 reports of this scam in the first five months of 2023, costing victims £467,208. The industry group said the tech firm, which has made its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, a $90bn (£70bn) fortune, should work with mobile phone networks “to understand the customer numbers being targeted and issue direct warnings to customers about this type of fraud in their apps”.
UK Finance, the industry group that represents the banking sector, said Meta, which owns WhatsApp as well as Facebook and Instagram, could do more to tackle the problem.
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